Poon Lim's 133-Day Raft Ordeal
In November 1942, Chinese seaman Poon Lim was left alone in the South Atlantic after a German U-boat torpedoed the British merchant ship Benlomond, and he escaped on an 8-foot-square wooden raft. He survived 133 days at sea by carefully rationing the emergency biscuits, water, and chocolate in the raftโs stores; catching rainwater in a canvas life jacket; and later fishing with improvised hooks and lines, even snaring seabirds and using their flesh for food and their blood to drink when water ran low.
Sharks circled his raft, and one attack was so persistent that he hauled the shark aboard, beat it to death, and used its flesh for bait. When a Brazilian fishing boat finally rescued him on 5 April, 1943 (133 days), he was told no one had ever survived longer on a raft at sea. He simply replied, โI hope no one will ever have to break that record.โ